a few GS1150 questions.

[hcritz]

Hello all...
As the weather gets better and gas prices rise...I'm starting to ride the 1150 a lot more (85 GS1150E). I bought the bike about a year ago and have mostly done short trips. I keep a sailboat on the coast...about a 4 hour drive and I try to get there every few weekends, so this weekend, I headed out on the bike. I stopped at about 200 miles out for fuel and a bite to eat...came out about 30 min later...hit the starter button and just a slow grunt. DAMN...first though is the Imfamous stator issue...and a dead battery. I have a friend that's about 40 miles away, so I unplug the headlight and bump start it. Runs fine the 40 miles there and it cranks...a bit slow, but it starts. OK, figure now it's just not charging enough to run the headlight. I put a charger on the battery and low and behold...it shows the batter to be charged??? Give it an hour to charge anyway...and head home...headlight still disconnected. Make the trip home OK...but the bike still won't crank...starter drags badly. HMMMMM. Battery maybe???
replace the positive cable end...it's a bit corroded and change the battery out with the one from my honda...same battery. Still no start...just a slow drag from the starter. Do a charging system test...voltages looks good at Idle and up to 5000. OK...now I pull the starter...damn it's HOT down in there! Tear the starter down...brushes and commutator look fine. Oil the rear bearin and grease the front one. put it back in and it starts. Of course...everything has cooled down by now. My only guess is that maybe the ground from the engine casing and the starter was bad??? I doubt that it's ever been removed...both bolts and the starer both had some white corrosion on them.
I tried to follow the ground lead from the battery, but it disappears somehere near the chainguard...could be a bad connection there too.
Anyone else had these issues??? Any thoughs here???

After this dissertation...more questions. The oil temp guage seems to be somewhat erratic...It will run at the first mark (1/2 way)...then drop down to about 1/4 scale for a while...then slowly climb back up to the 1/2 way mark??? Not really cyclic..just randomly. Is there an oil thermostat for the cooler???
Has anyone ever checked the case temps after an extended ride? I have an infrared thermometer...next time I'll see what it reads...you can't put your hands on the case where the stator or the ignition is for sure! The starter was too hot to hold bare handed as well. My bike has an aftermarket full fairing not sure how good the design is at directing air across the engine.

Thanks for any insights...I'l like to be sure it's going to start the next time I try a long trip!

[Hap Call]

it looks like you did all the right stuff as far as the electrical goes. Did you clean the lead from the batteery to the starter solenoid? Did you ever get to clean the ground lead that disappeared into the chain area? Also, were the brushes on the motor easy to move in and out in the brush holder? They can sometimes get cocked a little and not make good contact but that is probably a little unusual. One more possiblity is poor contacts in the starter solenoid.

Hap

[hcritz]

Hey Hap...
Starter brushes were fine...actually lots of material left and fairly clean inside. The Solenoid was replaced right before I bought the bike...and I checked the connections there...look clean and were tight. I haven't torn into the bike to find the motor end of the ground cable...it's hidden pretty well on this bike. I think I may run a new ground lead directly to the starter bolts from the battery...an extra ground can't hurt anything.
I'll pull the starter one more time and take a bit of sandpaper to the mounting faces and put some anti-sieze compound on them to prevent future corrosion. the drive end of the starter motor is probably inuslated by the O-ring that seals it, so the only ground is from the mounting face.
I'll take the starter apart again too and do a good cleaning of the brush plate as it's ground is just a contact thing with the housing where it gets pinched between the end shell and the center housing..some corrosion there could cause a lack of ground.
Thanks!
ED

[Hap Call]

I think putting the extra grounding lead is a good idea. On thing about permanent magnet motors (which the starter motor is), if the magnets start to get week, then the starter needs to be replaced. I don't know of a way to measure the magnetic field, or even how many teslas you should have (actually I think it would be a percent of a tesla). If there was any way to borrow a starter from someone close and put it on you bike and see how well it worked compared to your old one might be a way to do it.

Hap